Winter Blahs – Do You Have Homeschool Burnout?

February, that dreary winter burnout month.

It’s mid-February. It’s cold, it’s dark, it’s often snowy. Do you feel trapped? Are you cross? Are your children cranky? Does the thought of schooling fill you with “Oh no, not again” thoughts? Are you experiencing homeschool burnout?

Everyone goes through burnout. Public school kids do, private school kids do and homeschool kids do. AND homeschool MOMS do! The question is, where do we go from here?

Some things we’ve done to get over the hump of February doldrums are:

take a winter break from school
take one day off a week until spring break and do something FUN on that day
take a break from the regular academics and do a 1 month unit on something FUN
let each child choose a study in an area they really want to do and let them do it independently while dropping 1 hard-core subject for 2 weeks
start a craft time
plan and begin preparations for a spring garden
get out the sleeping bags and let the children slide down the stairs
let them rollerblade in the living room
take 1/2 day a week for “early out” and set up a play date with friends
do service projects with shut-ins in your church
do service projects within the community
take swimming lessons
if your church has a gym, take the bikes there and ride around for a morning
have Wii tournament as part of school
have a dance time each day
learn archery

I’m hoping this will spark your imagination! These days don’t have to be dull and dark and drab. We can use this as an opportunity to INTENTIONALLY add fun to our homeschool days! 5-10 days of dropping a subject won’t mess up our school. Taking some time to enjoy some fun will help to clear out those cobwebs from our brains that seem to suck the mental energy out of our children AND ourselves!